More than one in four U.S. renters have to use at least half their family income to pay for housing and utilities.
That’s the finding of an analysis of Census data by Enterprise Community Partners. The number of such households has jumped 26 percent to 11.25 million since 2007.
Since the end of 2010, rental prices have surged at nearly twice the pace of average hourly wages, according to data from the real estate firm Zillow and the Labor Department.
Since the recession recovery began, income has failed to match rent increases. At the same time, construction has failed to keep pace with demand.
More than 30 percent of renters in California, Florida, New Jersey and New York state devote at least half their incomes to housing and utilities. Other than Alaska, South Dakota and Wyoming, at least 20 percent of renters in every state face similarly high costs relative to income.
